ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The overall objective of this project is to bring the Alaska Food Safety and Sanitation Program into significant conformance with the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (VNFRPS), a critical element to the development of a national, fully integrated food safety system. Conformance with the VNRFRPS will ensure that the Program develops and maintains evidence-based best practices that will serve to improve and enhance our ability to prevent, detect, and respond to foodborne illnesses. The incremental steps towards conformance include further customization and development work on an information management system (IMS) designed specifically for food regulatory programs. The program intends to use inspection data to assess the occurrence of risk factor violations and the impact of intervention strategies, integrating risk factor data collection and analysis into the routine operations of the program. During the project period, significant effort will also be expended towards the standardization, re-standardization and field assessment of inspection staff, in order to promote and enhance uniformity and increase credibility with industry. Alaska has developed a strategic plan to continuously improve program areas that do not meet a particular standard, with the intention that significant conformance will be achieved by the end of the cooperative agreement period. Self-assessments and verification audits will be done where appropriate to demonstrate conformance.